My purpose is here to summarize what I found
out.
In the first place, the utter beginner has in his hands a weapon that
is adequate and humane. A bad rifle shot or a bad shotgun shot can and
does "slobber" his game by hitting it in the wrong places or with the
outer fringe of his pattern. But if an arrow can be landed anywhere in
the body it is certain and prompt death. This is not only true of the
chest cavity, but of the belly; and every rifleman knows that a bullet
in the latter is ineffective and cruel, and a beast so wounded is
capable of long distances before it dies. The arrow's deadliness
depends not on its shocking power, which of course is low, but upon
internal hemorrhage and the very peculiar fact that the admission of
air in quantity into any part of the body cavity collapses the lungs.
Furthermore, again unlike the bullet, the broad arrow seems to be as
effective at the limit of its longest flight as at the nearer ranges.
So the amateur bowman, suitably armed, may lay this much of comfort to
his soul: if by the grace of Robin Hood and the little capricious gods
of luck he does manage to stray a shaft into a beast, it is going to do
the trick for him.
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